Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/270

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE and sheriff at various periods of his life. He was sheriff of the county from 1190 to 1194," at a time when John strove to undermine the authority of his absent brother, which William Longchamp upheld. Staffordshire felt the effect of John's schemes, and the sheriff charged the crown with ,9 2s. 6d. for defending the county against malefactors ; he was also granted jT26 from the king's purse to preserve the peace. 88 The shrewdness of this bishop was equal to his activity ; he took advantage of Richard's insatiable desire for money to buy the estates of Cannock and Rugeley from him for 25 marks (16 13^. 4*?.), and they were added to the possessions of the see. King John favoured Staffordshire with several visits, no doubt because the county was particularly loyal to him, also because he was fond of hunting in its forests. 69 In March, 1 200, he came through Burton to Lichfield, where he spent two days ; in 1204 he was again at Lichfield for three days, and two years afterwards paid another visit, at which date he bestowed the first charter on Stafford, though he never visited that town. A letter written by Thomas de Erdinton, sheriff of Salop and Stafford- shire in 1215, to the king in answer to his question, who, and how many knights bore arms against him in the war, shows the state of parties in Staffordshire clearly. He tells the king that in the county of Stafford there were not any opposed to John at first except Robert Marmion (he incurred John's anger by this opposition so that his castle of Tamworth was ordered to be razed, but the order was not carried out), who still remains disaffected, and Hervey Bagot, who had made himself Sheriff of Staffordshire by means of the barons, but had accepted the king's peace at the hands of the Earl of Chester ; and also except two brothers of Hervey Bagot, who were still against the king in the following of Fulk Fitz Warin. 70 Ranulph Earl of Chester, whom Dugdale calls ' the greatest subject of England of his time,' was one of John's chief supporters, though he was not afraid to rebuke him for his evil life. 71 For his services to King John William de Ferrers was confirmed in his earldom of Derby, and was also rewarded by many grants of lands. At the 'fair of Lincoln' in 1217 the newly -created earl and the Earl of Chester helped to overthrow the French party, 72 but in the rising of Richard Earl of Cornwall, in 1227, both these great barons joined him. The two earls, indeed, seem to have been great friends, and in 1217 they went a pilgrimage to Palestine together. Ranulph of Chester was the last earl but one of his line, and his sister Agnes brought Chartley to the Ferrers family by marrying William de Ferrers. 73 On the death of Ranulph's nephew John the earldom came to the crown. During the early years of Henry III Staffordshire played very little part in history, though the Bishop of Lichfield, Alexander de Stavenby, was a politician of considerable eminence. In the middle of the thirteenth century several catastrophes, due to natural causes, occurred in the county. On the night of 2 October, 1254, Burton was visited by a fire, but the amount of damage is not recorded, 74 and in the same year, about 20 November, 67 Coll. (Salt Arch. Soc.), ii, 10. Ibid, ii, 14. " Eyton, Antlj. ofShrops. ii, 185. 70 Eyton, Antlq. ofShrops. x, 326. " Dugdale, Baronage, i, 42. 71 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii, 541. n Dugdale, Baronage (ed. 1675), i, 45. 74 Ann. Man. (Rolls Sen), i, 323. 226